The Bright Sparklers Fireworks fire occurred in

Sungai Buloh Sungai Buloh, or Sungei Buloh, is a town, a mukim (commune) and a parliamentary constituency in the northern part of Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. The name itself means ''bamboo river'' in the Malay language. It is located 16 km ...

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

on 7 May 1991. The Bright Sparklers

Fireworks Fireworks are a class of Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a l ...

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

caught fire and caused a huge

explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...

. Twenty six people were killed and over a hundred people were injured in the disaster. The explosion was strong enough to rip the roofs of some local houses, and ended up damaging over 200 residential properties.

Cause

The tragedy is believed to have been caused by explosive chemicals spilled during an experiment in the canteen of the factory. The chemicals touched off fires that rapidly spread to a nearby pile of large firecrackers, known as the "bazookas". These in turn set off the chain of explosions that ripped apart the factory and the nearby buildings, including the factory and nearby Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh.

Victims

26 people were killed and 83 people were injured. Victims were taken to the

Kuala Lumpur Hospital Kuala Lumpur Hospital ( ms, Hospital Besar Kuala Lumpur, abbr: ''HKL'') is a Malaysian government-owned public hospital in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Founded in 1870, HKL is a not-for-profit institution and serves as the flagshi ...

for further treatments.

Memorial

A small memorial in the design of a

Chinese pavilion A Chinese pavilion (Chinese 亭, pinyin ''tíng'') is a garden pavilion in traditional Chinese architecture. While often found within temples, pavilions are not exclusively religious structures. Many Chinese parks and gardens feature pavilions to ...

was erected at the site in 1998. Underneath it are three memorial stones, each written in

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

. The site is near the

Kampung Selamat MRT station The Kampung Selamat station is a mass rapid transit (MRT) station serving the areas of Kampung Selamat and Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia. The station was one of the stations on the MRT Kajang Line and was opened on ...

In popular culture

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

's documentary programme, ''Detik Tragik'' (Tragic Moments) produced an episode about the fireworks disaster.

References

1991 in Malaysia Explosions in 1991 Fireworks accidents and incidents Industrial fires and explosions 1991 fires in Asia 1991 industrial disasters May 1991 events in Asia Explosions in Malaysia 1991 disasters in Malaysia {{Coord, 3, 12, 32.6, N, 101, 33, 46.1, E, display=title

Cause

Victims

Memorial

In popular culture

See also

References